Anybody at All
by HecateA
Summary: When Al starts feeling like their body and life are all wrong, turning to Teddy, who can do whatever he wants with his skin, seems like the best option. Oneshot.


**Author's Note: **Anyways, you may have noticed non-binary Al elsewhere in my fic collection, so here we go again. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

**Warnings: **Coming out; coming to terms with gender identity

* * *

**Stacked with: **MC4A; Hogwarts

**Individual Challenge(s): **Rainbow Focus; Hufflepuff MC; Times Go On; Seeds; Themes & Things A (Truth); Themes & Things B (Loneliness); True Colours; Flags & Ribbons (Y); In a Flash; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux

**Word Count:** 1147

* * *

_**Hogwarts Submitting Info**_

**House: **Ravenclaw

**Assignment: **Assignment #2, Agricultural Study Task #1 Weeds: Write about someone feeling unwanted.

* * *

**Anybody At All **

Teddy was stretched out on the Potters' couch reading the book he'd gotten for Christmas when Al came into the living room, wearing a brand new navy blue pullover.

"Hey," Teddy said, looking up. "Am I hogging the couch?"

"Not really," Al said.

"But a little bit?" Teddy asked. Al didn't reply, so Teddy swung his legs off the couch and patted the cushion next to him. Al came to sit down. He sounded tired, but they'd just spent a full day at The Burrow with all the Weasley clan—and that was a _big _family, with a lot of screaming and excitement going on.

"Can I show you something cool?" Teddy asked.

His little brother (for all intents and purposes) nodded, and Teddy slid over the book and babbled on about the illustrated potions recipes that he could tell Al cared absolutely nothing about.

"Your hair clashes with the Weasley sweater you just got," Al blurted out, probably in some desperate attempt to change the topic away from Teddy's obscure and nerdy interests.

Teddy looked down at the bright red yarn that Grandma Weasley had used to make his pullover, branded with a big blue T on the chest, and recalled the lavender colour he'd picked out for himself that morning.

"You're so right," he said, touching his hair self-consciously. He mulled over his options for a second before defaulting to a lime green colour. "There. It's still a pretty chaotic colour combination, but at least I'm in the Christmas spirit now. Right?"

"Right," Al said, his eyes glued to Teddy's hair. Somehow he looked sadder, and Teddy poked at his ribs.

"You okay?" Teddy asked.

Al nodded, but wasn't looking away. Teddy tried to lighten the mood by changing his hair to its regular turquoise and then to a canary yellow that Ginny had once called louder than three Hippogriffs fighting to the death. Al sighed and looked away.

"It must be nice to be able to be anybody you want to be whenever you want," Al said.

Teddy frowned. "Well… I do like shapeshifting. But I'm also always me, no matter what I look like."

"I know," Al said. "I just meant… you can be anybody at all and… I don't want to talk about it."

"Too late," Teddy said. "I'm not going to let my baby-est brother be sad. What's the matter?"

Al winced.

"Teddy, would you still love me if I wasn't your baby-est brother?" Al asked so nervously that Teddy was caught off-guard.

"You're not _actually _my brother," Teddy said. "I just love you like one anyways Al, you know that."

"What if I didn't want to be your brother because I don't want to be a boy?" Al said all at once, so quickly that it was like the words spilled out. Then he became bright red.

Teddy cocked his head to the side.

"What do you want to be?" Teddy asked. "Or, I guess, what are you? Since you don't really get to choose."

"I don't know," Albus said. "Because I'm not a boy—but I'm not a girl, either."

"Okay," Teddy said.

"So I don't know," Al said anxiously. Tears welled up in Al's eyes, and suddenly Teddy wondered how long Al had been holding on to this. "I don't know because I still want to be your baby-est brother and James' brother and Lily's brother and my mum's son and my father's boy but I don't want to be all those things and it was driving me crazy at Christmas today and I don't know what to do, Teddy."

Teddy eased himself off the couch and knelt in front of Al. He took Al's hands and Al tried to pull away before relaxing into him.

"Hey, listen," Teddy said. "Al?"

Al looked up, lip still quivering.

"There's more than two options," Teddy said. "You don't have to be a boy or a girl. People… people are like colours, the more you go through them the more differences you'll find. Trust me, Al. That's okay. It's a really, really good thing."

Al was working really hard not to cry at the moment. Now was perhaps not the time to dive into the artificiality of gender and sexuality with his already very confused and very afraid nine-year-old sibling. They could deconstruct that _later. _

"Do you want to know what I learned about shapeshifting?" Teddy asked.

Al's head shook, up and down.

"Nothing is permanent," Teddy said. He nudged his hair into turning bright pink, a shade he'd always had a liking for. "See? And for me, changing things up is a really easy thing to do, because of the magic. But if you're not happy right now, you don't have to pretend."

"I just don't know what I'm going to be if I'm not… you know…"

"Everyone's son and grandson and nephew and brother?" Teddy asked. Al nodded and hiccuped, trying to blink away more tears.

"That's what I am. And I like that, because that's how I like being with my family. That's how everyone knows me," Al said. "But I don't like it…"

"That's what they think you are, for now. But they can learn something new. You can be something else," Teddy asked. "We can think of something, yeah?"

Al nodded for a second, then hesitated.

"Are people still going to want me, then?" Al asked shyly.

"Al," Teddy said quite seriously. "People let me walk around here all day like a literal eyesore wearing the most _clashing _colours in the world. And your mom still gave me extra pudding."

Al laughed a little bit—and it was just a little bit, but that was good enough for Teddy. He got up and wrapped Al in a hug. Al hugged back, pretty tightly.

"Your dad, he talks all the time about how people wanted a lot from him when he was little—and how he'd never want to do that to his kids. He'd never want something from you that you couldn't give him. And your mum? She's crazy about you. James teases, but really he misses you so much when we're at Hogwarts, it's ridiculous. And you're Lily's hero. And me? I'm always going to want you around, okay?" Teddy said. "'Cause I love you. It's really simple. And everyone else? They love you, and they'll want you around to love no matter what, too."

"Okay," Al said quietly. "But… Don't tell anyone."

"I won't," Teddy promised. "But I can help you do it, if you want. And we can talk more about it before that, when you're in a good mood for it."

"Yeah," Al said. "Yeah, maybe. I don't know yet."

"That's okay," Teddy said "All you need to know is that I'm still going to love you, okay? No matter who you end up being."

Al nodded against Teddy's chest and breathed in really, really deep.


End file.
